Two Little Blackbirds and The Piano Game Activities

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the brain pathways to make new connections.

Music Activities for Infants and Toddlers

Two Little BlackbirdsSing or say the words to this popular children’s song as you do the actions

Two Little BlackbirdsTwo little blackbirds sitting on a hill – Hold up the index finger of each hand.
One named Jack and one named Jill –Wiggle one finger for Jack and the other finger for Jill.
Fly away Jack - take the Jack finger and put it behind you.
Fly away Jill – take the Jill finger and put it behind you.
Come back Jack – bring you finger back to where you began
Come back Jill – bring your finger back to where you began.

Now play the following movement game.Divide the group into two parts. One part is “Jack” and the other is “Jill.”
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill – wave your arms like a bird
One named Jack and one named Jill – say “tweet, tweet, tweet.”
Fly away Jack – fly to a different part of the room
Fly away Jill – fly to a different part of the room
Come back Jack – fly back to where you began
Come back Jill – fly back to where you began

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Say the words of the song together.
For developing the idea - Sing or say the words as you act out the story.

For moving forward - “Where do you think blackbirds live? What do you think they eat?”

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The Piano GameYou will need a keyboard.
The word "piano" comes from the Italian word "pianoforte" which means loud and soft. The piano can make both loud and soft sounds.

Let the children watch as you play some notes at the top of the piano. Talk about the "high" sound. Now play some notes at the bottom of the piano and talk about the "low" sounds. Ask the children to close their eyes and tell you whether you are playing a "high" sound or a "low" sound.

Ask the children to pretend they are elephants and move around the room. Play loud and slow notes on the keyboard. 

Ask the children to pretend they are butterflies and move around the room. Play high and fast notes on the keyboard.

You do not have to know how to play a piano to do this activity with the children. Just play one at a time in any order that you desire.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Can you show me where the high sounds and low sounds are on the keyboard?

For developing the idea - Can you make your voice sound high and low?

For moving forward - Let’s make rain sounds. The high notes are raindrops and the low notes are thunder.

Products from Discount School Supply® that I recommend:
3-D Spindle Puzzles (ANIMATCH)
Soft Touch Baby Wild Animals (BABYZOO)
Counting Cookies (COOKIES)

Be a Machine and Many Faces Activities

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the brain pathways to make new connections.

Activities for Toddlers
Be a MachineTalk about all the different kinds of machines that we see everyday.
Show the children pictures of a vacuum cleaner, toaster, clock, computer, dishwasher, and any others that the children will recognize.

Talk about the machines that you have in your house. The washing machine, the toaster, the vacuum cleaner, a clock, etc.

Look at the pictures and discuss each one individually and as to how they are used and why they are important. Choose two machines that are familiar to the the children and show them how to imitate these machines. For example a clock and a vacuum cleaner.

For a clock, let your hands become the clock’s hands and move them in a circle. For a vacuum cleaner, move around the room in a gliding manner.

When you say the words "Machines go!" the children pretend to be the machines. When you say "machines stop!" the children stop.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Ask the question “Why do you think a clock is important?” and “Why do you think a vacuum cleaner is important?”

For developing the idea - What other machines do you have at your house?

For moving forward - Tell me what the vacuum cleaner does, the toaster does and the dishwasher can do.

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Many Faces
This game helps children to become more observant and sensitive to others.

Look through books and magazines with the children and talk about the different faces that you see. 

Talk about happy faces, silly faces, sad faces, and angry faces.

Play the following game.

When I am happy, I look like this- make a happy face
Can you make a happy face?- (wait for the children to make happy faces)
Continue on with silly, sad and angry faces.

After you have finished practicing all the different faces, choose individual children to make a face and the rest of the group guess which face he is making.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Expressing emotions with the face.

For developing the idea - Becoming aware of different feeling and emotions.

For moving forward - “What are some things that make you happy? What makes you angry? What makes you sad?"

Peek-a-Boo and Laughing Fun Activities

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the brain pathways to make new connections.

Activities for Infants

Peek-a-Boo

Playing “peek-a-boo” with an infant will reward you with smiles. It’s definitely a favorite game.

Why is peek-a-boo so important? This game makes connections between a child’s brain cells. The more they use these connections, the stronger these pathways become. 

Here are some different ways to play peek-a-boo.

• Cover your eyes with your hands.
• Put a towel over your face.
• Hide behind an object and pop out.
• Place a toy or stuffed animal under a cover and then pull away the cover.
• Draw a face on your thumb with magic marker and hide it under your other fingers.
• Make your own peek-a-boo pictures,
• Cut out pictures from a magazine and tape one picture each on a separate piece of cardboard.
• Cut out pieces of fabric that are bigger than the cardboard picture and tape it on one end of the cardboard to cover the picture. You should be able to lift the fabric and see the picture.
• Make up a story about the picture and then lift the fabric and show your baby the picture. For example: The little dog said “Bow Wow, Bow Wow, I want to see you.”
• Lift up the fabric and show the dog picture and say “Peek-a-boo.” Soon your little one will learn to lift up the fabric himself.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:

For building confidence – Play the game with your baby and praise him as he plays

For developing the idea - Try to switch roles. Put your baby’s hands over his eyes and take them away as you say “peek-a-boo.”

For moving forward –Show your infant how to play the game with a stuffed animal.

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Laughing Fun

Once you hear a baby's laugh, you won't be able to get enough

Laughter helps in releasing feel good chemicals and responses in the body, thereby increasing attachment and feelings of self-worth.

Baby's first smiles easily melt your heart. Soon your baby will learn to laugh out loud. Sometime between three and four months of age, she'll likely begin giggling along with her cooing.

What will inspire that first giggle?

The sight of your face, a silly grin, a favorite toy or a silly sound could stimulate the giggle.

Your baby is learning to recognize her voice and seeing how others react to it. She is also learning to move her mouth and tongue to produce different sounds.

Here are some ways to encourage your baby to laugh.

• Funny faces: Scrunch up your face and stick out your tongue. Your baby will laugh and soon try to imitate you.
• Peek-a-boo: Always guarantees a giggle.
• Silly sounds: Make up a silly sound of your own as you smile and laugh. This will tell the baby that she can smile and laugh at the sound.
• Fingerplay: Short poems that have a surprise.
• Jack in the box, you sit so still (hand folded with index finger of other hand tucked inside the folded hand). Say, "Won’t you come out?" and then say, "Yes, I will!" (say in a big voice as you pop out the index finger.)
• Looking in a Mirror: Look with the baby in a mirror and make funny faces.
• Dancing: Hold your baby and dance and glide around the room. If you add music, it makes it even more special.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:

For building confidence – Imitating and mimic your baby’s sounds.

For developing the idea - Play games that encourage laughter with your baby.

For moving forward – Laugh often and show spontaneous joy at what your baby can do.